Twelve by: Lauren Myracle

Twelve is the sequel to Eleven by Lauren Myracle.  I think that this series keeps getting better and better.  In Eleven, Winnie, the main character,  turns eleven and lots of things start to change.  Her friends start liking makeup, clothes, and boys.  Winnie feels really out of place because she is not ready to grow up yet.  She still wants to run around and play make believe, but no one else will.  Then a new girl comes and steals Winnie's best friend away.  In Twelve Winnie starts seventh grade.  She has a new best friend named Dinah.  Winnie is very nervous for seventh grade because she has to leave elementary school and go to a different place filled with total strangers.  The first couple of days are not good for Winnie, she just minds her own business and stays all alone most of the day.  Then Winnie meets a girl in gym class named Cinnamon.  Winnie, Dinah, and Cinnamon are all best friends.  But of course there is some drama.  Winnie has a crush on an eighth grader named Lars.  The girls think that Lars likes Winnie back.  Cinnamon always tries to get Winnie to flirt with Lars, and Winnie doesn't mind it.  One day Winnie is talking to lars and Dinah interrupts because of something with her cat.  Winnie gets mad and talks about it on the phone with Cinnamon.  Winnie said some mean stuff about Dinah, and it turns out that Dinah was on the other line.  Winnie tried to apologize but Dinah was really mad.  I won't tell you the rest so I don't give anything away, but it gets really dramatic.  Throughout the book Winnie has lots of adventures, but the main point is that Winnie is finally growing up.  She has to act more mature and not be childish around her friends.  by the end of the book Winnie does not feel so lost with all of her friends.  She starts getting into the things they are into.  Winnie feels like she is growing up within her family too.  She starts to hang out with her older sister Sandra a lot.  Winnie likes being able to act like a teenager with her sister.  Throughout Twelve all of Winnie's views on things have changed, and she is ready to grow up.  Thirteen still feels like a long way away though.  I really liked this book because I feel like I can relate to it because  I am in seventh grade too.  I cannot wait to read the rest of this series.  The books are light reads but still very fun to read.  I hope everyone gets a chance to read them soon.

Eleven by: Lauren Myracle

I have heard so many great things about this series from my friends that I had to read it.  It is an easy read for me, but still very good.  The main character is a girl named Winnie.  The book is written from her point of view.  The book is set up so that every month is a different chapter.  In each month there are new and exciting twists and turns.  In the first chapter it is Winnie's eleventh birthday.  The day is going perfect for her, until her party starts.  She and her best friend, Amanda, made a entire schedule of how the birthday party is going to go, but none of the other girls want to follow it.  Winnie wanted to act out a play, but everyone else thought that it would be boring.  Then someone found the old electric chair that went up and down the stairs.  It was meant for old people who couldn't walk up the stairs, but Winnie's friends thought it would be fun to play with.  The girls were complaining about the pizza, the gifts, and everything that Winnie and Amanda had planned.  Winnie was getting really sad, but then her bff Amanda showed her birthday gift to her.  It was a kitten! Winnie named her cutie-pie.  That was the exciting moment in chapter 1.  The next chapters get more and more exciting as the year goes by.  Winnie struggles to fit in with her friends as they start to like boys and makeup.  The new girl, Gail, is also trying to steal Amanda away from Winnie.  Winnie and Gail have a lot of funny arguments over clothes and hair and some silly little things.  I haven't finished the book yet and I really want to find out who Amanda wants to be best friends with.  I think that she will go back to Winnie because they were best friends for life.  You never know though because so much can happen in a year! This book is really good and I recommend reading it.  I cannot wait until I get to the rest of the series.